Conversation
by Silver-Oxide
Summary: [ Sess x Kag ] Sesshomaru is an arrogant prettyhaired bastard with a God complex and you can't talk to him without getting angry. But talking isn't nessecary.


**Author's notes: **Hello, duckies, welcome to my… well, one of my first stories here. I actually do not have much to say. I merely wanted to leave a short greeting before letting you go on with reading the actual chapter. Therefore… hello. Just to reiterate, this story will be revolving around Kagome and Sesshomaru – in other words that will be the pairing. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it. If you flame me, I will probably just start laughing at you.

**Disclaimer:** All characters pertaining to Inuyasha are not copyrighted to me.

---

**Conversation**

_Of a girl, and a demon, and all else in between._

---

"Kagome! Kagome, _wait!_"

The slightly out of breath voice called out in earnest, and Kagome forced herself to stop walking. She also had to force herself to smile, because it wasn't possible to do so naturally in front of the girl that was calling her name so frantically.

"Yes, Jaoki-san?"

Kagome couldn't stop her nose from wrinkling slightly at the oh-so-casual way the other girl had called out her name – it wasn't as if they knew each other all that well.

But she supposed it couldn't be helped. After all, Jaoki-san was not born in Japan, and had not grown up with the traditional suffixes. The girl's Japanese was also patchy; there were some words that she couldn't pronounce properly, and sometimes, she would mix up one term with another.

It certainly did not help her make too many friends at school. The boys liked to tease her, the girls liked avoiding her, and not many of the students spoke English well enough to start a conversation with her. Either that, or they just could not be bothered.

She had come at the worst of times – during their last year at high school, when everyone had already made solid friends and cliques. But she had come, and she could not find a place to fit in, and so she ate her lunches by herself, and studied by herself, and did her homework by herself.

Kagome had taken pity on her once, and had offered to study for their chemistry test together.

And now, Kagome reflected with a small pang of regret, she supposed the girl figured that they could now be best friends.

The girl finally caught up to her, and leaned over, her hands on her knees as she inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to get her breath back. Kagome quickly glanced around to see if anyone was watching, and then felt guilty for doing so.

It was also not the girl's fault that she dressed so oddly. After all, she had not grown up in Japan… it was the same argument, same old, same old. She was a transfer student, from _Can-nah-dah_, and Kagome had heard rumors that she had gone to a school that did not encourage uniforms, and did not _discourage_ excessive make up.

How very strange!

So, really, one could not blame this girl for wearing such… Kagome's dark brown eyes trailed down the girl's outfit in fascination.

She was wearing black. Just black. Black tank top, black skirt, black leg warmers, black wristband, black eyeliner, black boots – _boots!_ Why not just regular shoes? And why was she always wearing black? In fact, the only times she _didn't_ wear black was when she was forced to wear her uniform. And even then, she wore a black bra, and black underwear, and she never wore the required shoes. She always wore her boots.

Kagome knew about her undergarments because she saw them, while they were changing for gym.

And she had wondered to herself, _if you cut her in half, would she be black on the inside, too?_

Her boots were nice, Kagome supposed, if you didn't look too much at them. They went up to just under the knees, and they had rather large buckles going up the sides.

They were very… very… Kagome didn't know what they were.

"Kagome, Kagome, you don't have to call me by my last name – that's so weird," the girl finally straightened up, her dark brown eyes – dark enough to rival Kagome's – sparkling, "Just call me by my name!"

Kagome gave a small smile.

"Kanaria-san," she began, but she was interrupted.

"_Just_ Ari. Please." The girl stared at her, and in her eyes, there was a flash of something that Kagome couldn't identify.

That was the strange thing about the girl.

She was fun to be around, sure, spunky, loud (unnecessarily so), funny, and bold… but there were times when Kagome just couldn't understand her. She went from one mood to the next, and there were times when Kagome even found her presence threatening. She frequently got this _glint _in her eyes, like she was going to kill someone. She was very strange. Perhaps all Canadians were like that.

"All right, Ari," she gave in, smiling, "Something you need?"

"Not really, I was just wondering if you were busy."

Kagome hesitated for a second. She had been planning on returning to the feudal era.

Or, to be more accurate, she had been planning on _trying_ to return. Since the defeat of Naraku, and Inuyasha becoming human – Kagome swallowed awkwardly – she had not gone back. It was three years now, and she hadn't gone near the well.

She had told herself over and over again that it wouldn't be proper. Inuyasha being human, and Kikyou, and, well… she had just felt empty around them.

But of late, she began missing them fiercely, until the point where even seeing Naraku again would cheer her up.

"I – actually, I was – uhm – I was going to go to this… old museum for ancient artifacts," she invented wildly, taking a wild guess on something that she thought Ari might not find interest in, "And, well, it'll be really boring, and…" She trailed off miserably; Ari was watching her with an almost hawk-like gaze, as if seeing right through her lie.

Kagome swallowed again, and put on a bright smile. Maybe if she acted insane, the girl would go away.

"I'm going to feudal Japan," she corrected herself, smiling as brilliantly as possible.

Ari frowned slightly, but then she grinned.

"I _love_ playing these games! Jeez, I was beginning to think that no one knew how to pretend anymore! It's like Japanese people have no imagination, no offense…"

The girl went on and on and Kagome was now in a trap. Great. She began walking slowly home, really wishing that today was a school day, and not a Saturday, and that she had loads of homework instead of free time, and that she had not told her mother that she would attempt to go back.

"I, ah…"

"Oh, Kagome, I promise you I won't tell anyone about our little secret!" Ari cried out, grabbing her arm and stopping her from walking further.

Kagome's heart melted for the poor girl, and she smiled wearily. She'd have to along with it and try to go back tomorrow.

"Come on, Ari-chan, I'll show you where I like to pretend."

They linked arms, and Kagome began leading her towards the shrine. It couldn't hurt to show the girl where everything was. It would seem authentic to Ari that way, although that was beside the point.

"I usually pretend I'm some panther demon," Ari was chattering by her ear, "What do you pretend to be?"

"A miko," Kagome said, smiling. She could tell Ari the entire story, and it would make for a brilliant tale. There was no way that Ari could ever find out the truth, and so she would appreciate it as a wonderful story.

"A miko?" Ari repeated in wonder. "A priestess?" She fell silent as Kagome began expanding on the story.

"Once upon a time, there was a girl who didn't know that she had a destiny to fulfill in a world not her own…"

---

"Milord, Sesshomaru?"

Sesshomaru, king of demons, was annoyed.

It might have something to do with the death of Rin. But the death of Rin had happened nearly ten years ago. Sesshomaru never forgot. But he wouldn't dwell on it for the rest of his life, either. It was not in his nature to dwell on such things.

"Milord, Sesshomaru…?"

It was too easy to ignore the hesitant voice of Myouga. Myouga was not with Inuyasha. Inuyasha was dead.

But that wasn't a story to be told right now.

Sesshomaru was annoyed, and that wasn't good. The youkai turned his impassive gaze from his claws to the horizon, where the sun was just setting.

But Myouga would not stop questioning him, and sooner or later, he would have to answer.

"Milord Sesshomaru, I understand that you are-eee_eeerk!_"

One of the youkai's hands had shot out to grab the flea between two fingers. And he had squished down ruthlessly, possibly squashing Myouga's body out of shape.

But he wasn't worried, or even guilty. The flea always popped up. It was literally impossible to kill him.

"I – erk – aah – uh…"

With sickening cracking, and popping noises, the flea yanked his head back on straight, and relocated his many limbs. Sesshomaru stared down expressionlessly at the flea, and there was nothing in his golden eyes but a lack of compassion and sympathy.

He did not have to speak for Myouga to get the message. The flea hurriedly went on with what he was going to say.

"Milord, you have not moved from this spot for three days, and it's quite hazardous for your health… might I suggest a sparring opponent?"

Sesshomaru looked away, letting the flea hop from his hand to the ground. He briefly closed his eyes.

A sparring opponent was not what he needed.

With the passing of Rin, went the passing of conversation.

Sesshomaru never replied that much to the girl's chatter, but she had always been there to chatter on.

Jaken was not around, either. He was also dead.

But that story also wasn't to be told yet.

Ten years it had been since Rin moved on to the bright sunny lands of God-knows-where, and Sesshomaru had moved on.

More or less.

Sometimes, when he wasn't busy hacking apart other youkai for the heck of it, and when he wasn't preoccupied by hunting down aforementioned youkai to hack apart, he thought of Rin.

He didn't think of _her_. He thought of her presence. He thought of her voice, always going on and on in his ears. He thought of the way she would continue to talk, even when he was blatantly ignoring her.

And he found that he missed her voice, most of all.

He felt very little stirring for the girl herself. He was a youkai. It was not in his nature to mourn for a human being, special though Rin had been to him.

But he was annoyed now, because he was bored, and a little lonely, and it was making him irritated to admit it to himself.

He didn't _long_ for the voice of another companion. He merely yearned for it in a subtle way. It was a subconscious way that itched and nagged at the edges of his mind. It was a piece of molten lava that hardened around the very edge of his brain and it refused to go away and it was always there.

"Myouga."

The flea jumped (literally) at the sudden use of his name. "Yes, milord?"

"We are leaving."

"Yes, milord."

Sesshomaru stood abruptly, and began walking. Myouga hopped after him for a grand total of ten seconds in silence, before speaking again.

"Milord?"

"Mm."

Myouga hesitated another second.

"Where are we going?" He watched his lord walk, and thought that the youkai-sama would never answer, but when he finally did, it was in a quiet voice that Myouga nearly missed hearing.

"To find company."

And Myouga fell over backwards, in shock and horror.

That was it. The end of the world was coming. There was no other possible explanation. Sesshomaru-sama was seeking company? No way.

In a shrill, highly undignified voice, Myouga squeaked, "_Company_, milord?" He nearly ran into Sesshomaru's legs as the youkai came to an abrupt stop. Myouga gulped.

Sesshomaru turned slowly, his coolly appraising gaze falling on Myouga's tiny form. His upper lip curled very slightly, and Myouga could just see the hint of one white, very sharp fang. The flea broke into a nervous sweat and babbled, "Company, milord, of course!"

Sesshomaru, king of demons, was annoyed.

This was a not a time to be questioning his motives.

Myouga made a mental note to shut his trap.

---

"And then?" Aria demanded, grinning.

"And then… Well, the wolf youkai had two shards." Kagome smiled again, patting the empty space on the bench. "Sit down, Ari, you're making me nervous."

Ari sat down obediently. "But Kagome, why didn't you just take the two shards away when you got the chance to?"

_Why didn't I?_ Kagome asked herself blankly. "It – er – it wouldn't have been as fun, you know, this way it really tested my patience," she answered awkwardly.

"But Kagome, didn't What's-His-Name think this was suspicious? Inuyasha, I mean?"

Kagome felt a flicker of irritation, but it quickly passed away. _Remember, Kagome, this is all just a story to her. No need to take anything personally._

"I guess I just like being realistic, even when I'm pretending," she joked, laughing.

Ari burst into giggles, and the two girls shared some laughter for a while, before trailing off into a comfortable silence.

"Oh!" Ari gasped, "Kagome, I'm so sorry, you'll have to show me your settings another time. My mother is taking me shopping, and I nearly forgot."

For a moment, Kagome was puzzled. What settings? And then she remembered that she was not only pretending her entire history with the feudal era was just a fictional story, she was also pretending that she frequently pretended to be this fictional miko. Ah, yes.

"Oh, that's all right," she said warmly, "I have to go home soon, anyway, I, ah, feel a little dizzy." _Smooth excuse_.

"Oh no, Kagome, are you okay?" Ari asked, concerned.

"I'm fine," the non-fictional-but-pretending-to-be miko assured the actual-fictional-wolf-panther girl.

How very ironic.

"Okay, but you go home and rest yourself, Kagome," the other girl patted her arm a few times, and smiled, "I'm off now. Bye, Kagome! Tell me the rest of the story next time!"

Kagome waved back. As soon as the girl disappeared from sight, she got up from the bench and hurried the last block or two back home. She had spent an hour relating the first part of the tale to the girl, and it had taken enough of her time to make her slightly impatient.

It was still early afternoon. She would have plenty of time.

Hurry; hurry, her heart sang out.

Kagome quickened her pace.

-----

**Ending notes:**

Well, that's it for chapter one. Hope you enjoyed that. Until next time…!


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